[apologies for duplicates]
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*** IROS 2012 Competitions ***
October 7-12, 2012
Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal
http://www.iros2012.org/competitions
Objective
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Robot competition events provide challenging atmospheres for innovation, attracting researchers from multiple fields.
Two robot competitions will take place during IROS 2012 tackling mostly mobile manipulation scenarios.
Prospective teams should develop relevant scientific and technological solutions.
Challenges
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*The Tower of Hanoi *is a problem that has been known to generations of computer science students. It
allows studying and learning the concept of recursion in algorithm design. The task is to move a pile of disks
with the smallest number of moves from one location to another while obeying certain rules. The Tower of
Hanoi problem is not only of interest to computer scientists. It is also an important problem for
Robotics research and education. The fundamental difference is that we are not dealing with a virtual world,
but with the real world. As a matter of fact the Tower of Hanoi problem is an excellent scenario
to study some of the most demanding scientific challenges in Robotics today. Solving the Tower of Hanoi
problem - if done efficiently and fast - requires the seamless integration of perception including object
recognition, scene understanding and situation awareness, world modeling (in 3D), task planning (for mobile
manipulation), motion planning (for mobile manipulation), coordination and control including
navigation. The Tower of Hanoi problem is a great opportunity for research and education in mobile manipulation
and it yields an adequate setting for a robot contest for students and their teachers interested
in mobile manipulation.
*RoboCup at Work *is a new RoboCup competition that targets the use of robots in work-­-related scenarios.
The RoboCup at Work scenarios target difficult, mostly unsolved problems in robotics, artificial intelligence, and
advanced computer science, in particular in perception, path planning and motion planning, mobile manipulation,
planning and scheduling, learning and adaptivity, and probabilistic modeling, to name just a few. Furthermore,
RoboCup at Work scenarios may also address problems for which solutions require the use and integration of
semantic web technology, RFID technology, or advanced computational geometry.
Examples for the work-­-related scenarios targeted by RoboCup at Work include
• loading and/or unloading of containers with/of objects with the same or different size,
• pickup or delivery of parts from/to structured storages and/or unstructured heaps,
• operation of machines, including pressing buttons, opening/closing doors and drawers, and similar operations
with underspecified or unknown kinematics,
• flexible planning and dynamic scheduling of production processes involving multiple agents (humans, robots,
and machines),
• cooperative assembly of non-­-trivial objects, with other robots and/or humans,
• cooperative collection of objects over spatially widely distributed areas, and
• cooperative transportation of objects (robots with robots, robots with humans).
Important Dates
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June 25, 2012: deadline for submission of applications
July 31, 2012: notification of qualified teams
October 7-12, 2012, competition takes place in Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal
- October 7-11, 2012: Team setup and qualification rounds; room Neptune;
- October 12, 2012 (morning): Final rounds and awards ceremony;
- October 12, 2012 (afternoon): Workshop on "Robot Competitions: Benchmarking, Technology Transfer and Education", including presentations by the 2 Best Teams on each competition.
Application Details and Team Selection Process
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Applications should clearly state the selected challenge and include the following materials:
i) Video with simulations of the proposed approach, meeting the corresponding competition rules (max video duration: 3 mn; max video file size: 50 Mb)
ii) Short paper (max 4 pages 2 column, 11 pt, IEEE IROS format) with a technical and scientific description of the approach, pointing out innovative aspects;
iii) One A4 page with team CVs.
IMPORTANT: items ii)+iii) must be submitted in 1 single pdf file.
The selection of qualified teams will be carried out by an International Program Committee composed of
renowned Robotics scientists, including robot competition experts, based on submitted materials.
Qualified teams will have to show their approaches applied to real robots during the actual IROS Competitions.
Robots from different manufacturers, including self-made robots, can be used. KUKA will make available a few youBot robots,
whose simulator is available at http://youbot-store.com/software.aspx
Submissions
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An email should be sent to competitions at iros2012.org, with:
Subject: Tower of Hanoi / RoboCup at Work
Body: Web link pointing to the video
Attachment: A single pdf file with items ii)+iii)
DO NOT attach the video
Organizers
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Rui Cortesão, Institute for Systems and Robotics, U. Coimbra
Pedro Lima, Institute for Systems and Robotics/LARSyS, IST, TU Lisbon
More information
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More information on contest rules, technical details and alike can be found on the contest website
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